Faith Sidlow, producer Larry Johnson, and photographer Nathan Luna go on an adventure of a lifetime: Cage Diving with Great White Sharks.
We began our adventure at 5:30 a.m. in a small Marin County town appropriately named Tiburon, which is Spanish for "shark." The real sharks, though, are 27 miles out to sea, in the Gulf of the Farrallones Marine Sanctuary. We boarded the Tamalpais, a 23' former ferry, for the two and a half hour ride out to the islands. We journeyed with about 20 other passengers and a crew of eleven.
Peter Winch, the naturalist on the Tamalpais describes the Farrallons as home to some of the world's largest great white sharks. The islands are the winter playground of adult great white sharks measuring 15 to 20 feet long. The sharks come to the Farrallons to dine on the local population of Northern Elephant Seals.
The Great Whites have a reputation as a killing machine. They are responsible for 87 % of attacks against humans in the Pacific Ocean. But they are also threatened. "They play a very important part in the eco-system, and many of them are disappearing every year, especially for shark fin soup," says Winch.
As we left San Francisco Bay, we cruised out under the Golden Gate Bridge, shrouded in fog, but magnificent none the less. As we head farther out into the ocean, we see Humpback Whales spouting off the side of the boat.
The long trip gives us a chance to talk with some of the other passengers about why they decided to take this trip. There's a family of five from Norway, a couple from Illinois celebrating their seventh anniversary, two men from New York, and several other passengers from around the country. All said they were fascinated by the great white shark.
Dino Colonna is a New York City Health Care Analyst. He and his friend traveled all the way to San Francisco, just for a chance to glimpse a great white. "Even seeing them on TV is mesmerizing. I can't imagine what it would be like seeing them up close in real life." Colonna realizes there's a good chance he may not see a shark once he's in the cage. But he says that's all right with him. Just the adventure is good enough.
Kalla, who is a magazine editor and her anesthesiologist boyfriend Dave Rakoff came up from Los Angeles for the adventure. Kalla has dreamed of this day since she was a little girl. "I’ve wanted to do this since i knew what a shark was. I think they're just incredible animals. and worth seeing in the wild without chumming, without extra stuff trying to catch them in the wild ." Her boyfriend is a little skeptical. "There's no chumming so i don't see any reason why the sharks should stop and hang out. We'll be lucky if we see one at all."
It is a shot in the dark, seeing a great white from the shark cage off the back of the boat. Incredible Adventures Operation Manager, Greg Barron says they don't "chum" because they want to keep the sharks as wild as possible. "By not bating them in and bringing them to the cage, you're not altering their behavior with a food source. That’s a critical thing if you’re studying the animal. If you’re trying to learn their feeding habits, you don't feed them to see them bite, you watch what their natural diet is."
The crew uses a type of decoy, a piece of rug cut into the shape of a baby elephant seal. "We put out some seal silhouettes on surface, and just let them float. Hopefully the sharks will be curious enough to come in and go past them to look and we can get a better look," Barron explains.
Winch says that silhouette is exactly what the great white is looking for. "Their favorite food is an elephant seal, because they’re big and fat and especially the pups and one and two year olds swim slowly and on their own. They’re looking for the big fat silhouettes on the surface. And if they see that they rush at top speed, hit the animal as hard as they can and possibly decapitate it. They try to use as little energy as possible in the killing so they're getting enough calories and enough food so they can leave it and move on to the next one."
We reached the Farrallon Islands around 8:30 a.m. The crew scrambled to lower the shark cage into the water. Incredible Adventures says their shark cage is the largest in the world. It is a spacious twelve feet long by five feet wide. There is plenty of room for divers to move around and get comfortable during their lengthy underwater vigil. We use a "Third Lung Hookah System" to breath through regulators attached to long hoses that run from an air compressor to the cage.
We struggle into our full body 7 millimeter wetsuits to protect us from the chilly 50 degree water. Once we've pulled on the hoods and gloves and donned our masks, we're ready to go. All that's needed is the weight harness to keep us from bobbing to surface.
We notice seals or sea lions swimming not far from the boat. The crew tells us that's good news. Where there are seals, there could be great white sharks.
I sit on my bottom and scoot down the ramp toward the shark cage. The dive master hands me the regulator and clips it to the weight harness. If I happen to drop the regulator, I can follow the hose to retrieve it. Or, I can simply stand up. The shark cage is less than 8 feet deep.
I'm followed into the cage by KSEE-TV producer Larry Johnson. "a little excited nervous, anxiousness, all we gotta do is wait and see if they come around," he says before sliding down the ramp.
Underwater, it’s cold, but tolerable. It's very easy to breathe through the Hookah system. The visibility is exceptional for the Farrallon Islands. The crew says it's at least 30 feet. We see several Moon Jellyfish, a few salmon, and that seal decoy that floats above the cage, but no sharks. The time flies by, and before we know it, the dive master is signaling us to get out.
We dry off and go into the galley where hot clam chowder and tomato soup is waiting for us. It's a welcome treat and does wonders to help cut the chill. While we eat lunch, the next group of divers makes their way into the cage. A short time later one of the crew members, Marni Doyle, screams "Shark!" She says she spotted a fin doing strange things. "The fin stayed up too long. And so I screamed 'shark' and we all got to see the big explosive blood fountain."
Those who were watching the ocean after Marni screamed, saw a large great white shoot out of the water and kill a seal. Shark cage instructor Francesca Koe saw the whole thing. "I immediately followed her voice and went out on the bow port side and all i saw was the shark come up, a fin, and a big red bubble of blood."
The crew moved the boat to the location of the attack. Johnson and KSEE news photographer Nathan Luna went back in the cage along with Richard Talaga and his wife from Illinois. "There it was, a big great white shark on its side with its white showing, coming just cruising straight up looking at us," Talaga said.
"It kind of made me like my heart stop. We're here, we wanted to see a great white, but then you see it right in front of you, it kind of takes you back for a second," said Johnson.
"I think it was probably about 12-16 feet long," said Talaga. "And it was very big, and it was calm. That's the thing, you just sort of see it and there it is, and you're not frightened or anything, at least you don't think you are."
The crew never really knows when passengers will see a great white. Dave Rakoff missed everything and says he can't help but be disappointed. His girlfriend Kalla, though, says she's ready to go again. She's determined to see a great white in the wild.
The Incredible Adventures crew is determined to make sure whether their passengers see a shark underwater or a "kill" on the surface, that they take home the right message. "It's important to me at least when I bring people out here that I try to change the perception from the sensation that it’s a killing machine to wow, that’s the most incredible creature I’ve seen in my life," says Greg Barron.
Go to Incredible Adventures and Cage Diver for more information on cage diving in the Farrallon Islands.
Watch the second part of Faith's sharks series: Great White Shark Attack Survivor Speaks.
Go to faiths@ksee.com to contact Faith Sidlow with questions, comments or story ideas.
